


Where the Land Meets the Waves

by Shadowblade58



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Depression, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Military, My First Fanfic, Navy, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2019-09-22 20:36:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17066642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowblade58/pseuds/Shadowblade58
Summary: Lapis Lazuli joins the United States Navy hoping to find a new life sailing out to sea exploring the world. But what she didn't expect was that her world was a hot tempered tiny engineer by the name of Peridot.





	1. This is Home

**Author's Note:**

> My first fanfic ever! I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoy writing it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis arrives at her first ship command

**_“Often I am upset that I cannot fall in love but I guess, this avoids the stress of falling out of it”_ **

Lapis Lazuli, staring outside the bus window, she sighs and rests her chin on the palm of her hand. * _This is really happening. Half way across the world on my own serving my country_. * Lapis giggles at the thought. The curving road passes into a lively city full of people going every direction to their destination. She stares at them, wondering how the people here are.

* _How am I gonna be able to talk to them? I hope they speak English otherwise I’m out of luck._ * She sighs and shuts her eyes for a quick nap, knowing the trip will take several hours until she arrives on the first step to her new life.

Waking up to a bump in the road causing the bus to bounce, Lapis lays her hands on her head trying to get rid of her drowsiness. After a minute of rubbing her head on the seat in front of her, she rubs her eyes getting the sand out from them. She blinks a few times trying to get her eyes to focus. A few blinks later she looks out the window to see the glistening ocean. Lapis face was overjoyed looking out into the deep blue ocean. It reminded her of home and a wave of homesickness came over her. Lapis hasn’t been home ever since she left for boot camp and spending the past several months indoors getting barked orders and marching from one building to the next. She wonders if she’ll be able to take leave to visit her family anytime soon.

 On the other side of the bay she can see her final destination. A ship docked by the pier, resting itself with the gentle waves.  * _Wow! Look at the size of her! Hopefully I can make some friends while I’m there._ *She looks down at the small pamphlet she got before leaving school for her rate, listing some details and features about her ship. * _The USS Crystal huh? Wonder if it's as good as this silly pamphlet says it is._ * Setting the pamphlet to her side, Lapis continues to stare out the window, resting her head in her hand daydreaming what will come her way.

As the bus begins to enter the Naval base Lapis starts prepping her stuff for a quick grab and go. A sea bag, suitcase and a backpack. Everything she needed for her work and some of her personal belongings. Once the bus stopped in front of the pier Lapis grabbed her belongings and hopped off the bus. Thanking the bus driver and waving him goodbye, she begins her walk down the pier. The ocean air filling her lungs, reminding Lapis of her home back in Molokai Hawaii, wishing her family could be with her. Taking a second, she looks over the railing onto the ocean and sees a small school of fish swimming by and even a starfish hanging on the rocks. She waves at the starfish, giggling to herself. After walking closer to her ship, the ocean air she was breathing changes into smoke from sailors grinding against steel within the ship. Walking to the brow Lapis is greeted is greeted by a tall woman in a dress blues uniform with orange tinted sunglasses waiting at the entrance.

"Hello and welcome to the mighty USS Crystal! You must be Lapis Lazuli oh yes we've been waiting for you to arrive." The mysterious woman’s arms were spread wide open. It looks like she’s presenting the ship to her like it was a car at a car show. Lapis walked next to next to the woman. She felt small as the mysterious woman was now towering over her. Lapis felt nervous staring up at her not really sure what to say.

 "Thanks umm I never got what your name was." Lapis choked out nervously, looking through the woman’s shades. Seeing nothing but boastful energy and a dauntless stare.

"Oh, my apologies I just get excited when we have a new sailor join us. I am the command master chief (CMC) for this ship, you can just call me Sardonyx." Taking off her shades, Sardonyx bows in front of Lapis. Lapis returns the favor by giving a small smile and wave.

 "So, what are you doing standing in front of the ships entrance?" Lapis asked as her eye’s wander to the podium. There's a girl standing next to the podium with the same dress blue uniform, As tall if not shorter than the podium itself. She nonchalantly looks over at Lapis and gives her a small 2 finger salute.

Sardonyx looking over her shoulder and gives a hardy laugh, "Miss Lazuli I'm the officer of the deck, I have to stand and check people on board the ship.” Walking over to the podium, Sardonyx rests her hand on the girls head, who now up close it seemed as if Sardonyx towered over the small girl by at least a foot and a half.” This small firecracker right here is Amethyst, she'll help you to your bed and settle in."

Sardonyx picks up the nearby radio requesting someone to relieve Amethyst from her watch. A couple minutes later a door opens presenting a girl the same size as Amethyst but with darker skin and a small afro. “Thanks for doing this for me Ruby I owe you one.” Amethyst said, hi-fiving Ruby as she walks to the door.

“Owe me one? You owe my like five at this point,” Ruby chuckled out. “It’s fine, so this the new girl everyone was talking about?”  Looking over at Lapis, giving a strong wave over her direction, Lapis waves back at Ruby, walking up and giving Ruby a handshake.

 “I’m Damage Controlman (DC) Lazuli, Lapis Lazuli.” Shaking her hand back Ruby chuckles.

 “Hehe, you don’t need to say your rate with most of us here. But since its our first time meeting I’m Boatswain's Mate (BM) Ruby. Pleasure to meet you” Amethyst waves over to Lapis to come over.

 “Hey dude we should get going, I wanna get some rest before work tomorrow.” Rushing over Lapis shuts the door and follows Amethyst up the stairs. Leading into a long hallway with a bunch of rooms saying berthing and a number underneath. Reaching to a door that says, “berthing 2.” Walking into the room Lapis looks around seeing beds and lockers along the walls of the room. Walking over to an empty bed with fresh white sheets Amethyst opens the bed showing multiple empty cubbies.

 "So, here's your bed, you can put your stuff away in here and your locker is right over here with the rest of them" Amethyst gives Lapis a key showing the number 24 on it.

"Thank you, Amethyst. Umm whose beds are these?" Pointing over to the beds right beside hers. Lapis didn’t know how much information she’d retain with the amount pouring in from the day. She was tired from her trip coming over here and it could clearly be seen by her face.

 "Oh, that one is mine and the other is pearl, you'll meet her tomorrow along with everyone else here. You should get some rest though, you're gonna have a big day tomorrow." Amethyst begins taking off her dress uniform, folding them up and placing them in one of the cubbies. Lapis drops her bags and begins unpacking her belongings into the little cubbies and locker. 

"Yeah you're right thanks for helping me to my bed" Amethyst Waves her hand. “It’s no problem dude. You and I are gonna be attached to the hip” She puts her hand on her hip giving Lapis a small laugh. Amethyst walks out of the room holding a towel and an extra pair of clothes. * _She must be going to take a shower after being on watch out there.*_ Alone to her thoughts Lapis puts her earbuds in, humming to the music.

**_“Get a load of this train wreck, His hair's a mess and he doesn't know who he is yet, but little do we know, the stars Welcome him with open arms “_ **

Lapis looks at her Lapis Lazuli necklace her family gave her as a good luck charm. Grazing her thumb over the gem. She closes her eyes and sighs. _*Maybe this will be a good change, maybe I can call this place home.*_


	2. Scar Tissue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis gets her tour of the USS Crystal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone! I'm surprised of how many people read my story these few days. I'm happy people are enjoying it and don't forget to tell me what you think!

"Hey dude, you gotta wake up or else you're going to miss breakfast." Amethyst stood next to Lapis’s rack gently shaking her leg to get some sort of response.

"Eeeeehhhh just give me five more" **Thump!**

"Ow fucking shit!"

Rubbing her head Lapis gets out of her bed cursing silently to herself. Seeing Amethyst chuckle at her for bumping her head. "Why in the hell are the beds so small? It feels like I’m a vampire sleeping in a coffin. tttssssss ow ow ow" Lapis hisses in pain as she softly pokes where she smacked her head against the metal.

Amethyst shrugs her shoulders and checks her Hawaiian friends head. Feeling a small bump in the middle of her forehead. "Ouch that’s a real knocker there. Guess you never slept in a bunk bed before huh?"

"No, I'm an only child so I didn't exactly need an extra bed. Why do we have so many beds but no one sleeping in them? "Gazing around the room, Lapis sees all the empty beds with no sheets, pillows or blankets.

“The ship underwent some major changes in the past so we didn’t have to have so many people on the ship. Wish we kind of had the man power though, it gets a bit rough sometimes on our work.” Amethyst walks around the room looking at all the beds, gliding her fingers across the mattress imagining how life would be with more people onboard.

"So where do we go to eat anyways? I never really got a grand tour of this place." Lapis looks in the mirror checking the bump for herself letting out a sigh of relief that it didn’t cause a scar. Putting on her uniform Lapis looks over to see Amethyst walking out the door.

"Come on slow poke or else you won't have time to eat. I'll give you a tour after breakfast and quarters." Lapis panics, running out the door getting behind Amethyst, Lapis catches up to her asks to slow down so she can tie her boots.

"But breakfast just started didn't it? We got an hour to eat. "Amethyst laughs pointing at her watch which reads 6:45. "Dude you slept in past breakfast we only got 15 minutes before the mess line closes." Lapis groans cursing her terrible sleeping habits, making a mental note to change her habits knowing it’s easier said than done.

Walking up and Grabbing a tray, Lapis and Amethyst are both greeted by a chubby young girl with messy brown hair and a shining smile you can’t help but to share one with her. "Morning Amy, you want your usual, eggs with everything? Hheeyyy who’s the new girl attached to your hip?"

Amethyst nods and waves a friendly gesture, pointing her thumb over to Lapis giving a smirk to her half-asleep friend. "Yeah thanks Smokey. This is our new girl, she just came in yesterday so I'm showing her around."Lapis waves, yawning and setting her tray over the counter, moving the hair off her face giving Smokey a welcoming smile. "My names lapis, Lapis Lazuli."

Smokey smirks cutting up some pepper into amethysts eggs. "Names Smokey quartz, I'm your Culinary Specialist, (CS) and the yo yo master! If you ever need any food or some insane yo yo tricks I'm your gal to see!" Smokey pulls out a piece sign, sticking her tongue out. Lapis gives a small snort from Smokeys pose.

"A morning smile is what I like to see. So, what can I get for you Laz."

"Can I just get cheese and bacon on my eggs please."

"Not a problem just give me a minute to finish amys eggs."

After waiting for Lapis food, her and Amethyst sit down at a nearby table. "So why isn't anybody else here? "Lapis asks looking around the room. Noticing the empty seats and booths. She spots a girl that’s just about the size of Amethyst cleaning the tables and setting all the condiments to one of the free tables in the corner before wiping all the tables down.

"Well everyone else Is probably working so they can go home earlier. I see you’ve noticed my cousin Carnelian. She helps Smokey out by cleaning all the tables trays and silverware. Prepping everything for the next meal.” Pointing over towards Carnelian at the table a few rows from theirs. “I'll take you to your shop first so you can meet with the people you work with. " Lapis tries to speak with food in her mouth but can only mumble a couple words before swallowing and starting over. Amethyst cracking up watching her new friend struggle. "Sounds good to me."

After finishing their eggs, Lapis says goodbye to Smokey while setting her tray in the sink. Carnelian thanks her, giving Lapis a smirk, reflecting Amethysts own smirk of devilish mischief before going back to cleaning _.*She looks just like Amethyst if it wasn’t for the burgundy hair. Guess they are related. Almost even twin like*_

 Smokey tells Lapis goodbye, giving a smile and waves at Lapis before she disappears from the mess decks. Walking down stairs and down the hall Amethyst stops Lapis in front of a door. On the door was a painting of flames and a sign saying carpenter shop. "This is the carpenter shop. This is where you'll be working at from now on."

Staring at the detail on the door Lapis gives an interested hmmm before opening the door. Inside a speaker was blasting from the back of the shop and a tall bulky woman passionately singing into a broom, pretending it was a microphone.

**_"Scar tissue that I wish you saw_ **

**_Sarcastic mister know-it-all_ **

**_Close your eyes and I'll kiss you cause_ **

**_With the birds I'll share"_ **

Lapis eyes light up from the song she's hearing from the woman and runs up next to her singing with her on key.

**_" With the birds I'll share this lonely view in'_ **

**_With the birds I'll share this lonely view in"_ **

"TOPAZ! What are you doing?!"

Topaz drops the broom in fear as someone walks in through the door, quickly turning the music off and picking her broom back up, Topaz rushes over to the woman demanding her attention. Lapis steps behind topaz fearing what would happen to her. Upon closer look the woman was about a foot shorter than Lapis and even shorter than Amethyst by at least a few inches.

"Come on Topaz you can't keep goofing off like this we have work to do, we can't make yellow angry at us again. You know how she gets if progress doesn’t show."

"Y-yes aqua." Topaz rushes out the room carrying a small toolbox and tags.

"And you, you must be our new Damage Controlmen, (DC) Lapis Lazuli correct?"

"Y-y-yes mam."

Aqua stares Lapis down, well up through Lapis eyes, inspecting her thoroughly. Lapis fear of the short woman shows clear as aqua gives a sour smile. "We're going to have to give you some coveralls, don't want you messing up your uniform while you work. I'm sorry for the horrible introduction it's just that our chief engineer Yellow Diamond has been putting a lot of pressure on us engineers recently from inspection. My name is Aquamarine, I'm the Damage Control Assistant (DCA) for the Crystal. I'll oversee you and Topaz on getting whatever needs to get done, done."

Aqua extends her hand to give Lapis a proper greeting. Lapis shakes hands, noticing the scar right beneath aquas face. Aqua notices Lapis staring at her scar and scoffs. "Oh this? It was an accident a few years back when I was about your age, that's what I get for not wearing goggles while cutting hehe."Aqua shrugs and pats Lapis on the back. Making Lapis flinch from the action.

"Hey Amethyst, can you finish showing Lazuli the rest of the ship, you aren't doing much anyways as usual. "Amethyst scoffs at the comment and turns away from aqua, with one foot out the door she turns back and points straight to aqua. "Hey without me you wouldn't be having your morning coffee or monster."

Aqua laughs at the comment and shoos Lapis over to her friend who seems to be on her last nerve with aqua. "Yeah yeah now hop to it and give her some coveralls. Don't want her sticking out like some top sider, she's an engineer for crying out loud."

Amethyst rolls her eyes and walks out of the room. Lapis following behind her. "Uugghh sometimes I can't stand her, making fun of my job who the hell does she think she is."

Lapis gives her a questionable look and lifts her shoulders, not knowing how to respond to her friend’s temper tantrum.

“So, what exactly is a topsider? ”Lapis asks trying to change the conversation around. “It’s what engineers call every other rate in the navy thinking they’re more special than the rest of us. I guess it started a long time ago with some guy named snipe or something. You’re gonna have to look it up because I don’t know it.”

Lapis hums in acknowledgment, keeping a mental note to look up the history of this Snipe guy. She remembers back in school this man talking about him but nothing in particular except for how excited and a little crazy he sounded.

 Walking along the hallway, Amethyst continues to vent to Lapis about aqua until they reach a door saying, 'main supply' Amethyst knocks on the door hard with her fist. "Come on Pearl open up, we got someone that needs coveralls." "Coming!"

The top half of the door opens to reveal a girl with pale skin, peach colored hair and a small scar on her forehead. "Amethyst what have I told you about calling before coming over here, you know I like to prepare for the new people."

"Sorry P guess I forgot."  Amethyst gives an apologetic smile to pearl. Rolling her eyes Pearl sighs and opens the bottom half of the door.

"So, you’re the new girl everyone's talking about? "Lapis raises an eyebrow at the question, looking for her small friend for answers that only reply with a non-caring shrug. "Yyyeeesss? Umm my names Lapis Lazuli."

"Pearl. Nice to meet you." Pearl reaches out to shake Lapis hand. Lapis reaches her hand and shakes, noticing just how thin Pearl was with her hand easily covering Pearls. Pearl turns around and goes back into the supply room.

"So, I'm gonna need your waist size for your coveralls, hmmm you're about my height so a regular will fit your height. Unlike Amethyst over here who has to get a small" Amethyst snaps her head straight at Pearl. "Hey I heard that!"

"Oh, I'm surprised you can hear me from all the way down there haha." Amethyst face says she's ready for a fight as pearl pokes Amethyst buttons more.

"Umm excuse me but I think I'm a size 26." Looking up, away from Amethyst, pearl acknowledges Lapis and hurries off to the back of the room out of sight.

"Do you guys always fight like that?" Lapis asks watching Amethyst paces back and forth. Coming to a halt she takes a deep breath and looks back to Lapis, giving a small smile over to the room Pearl is in. "Yeah, we always mess with each other a lot, it's kind of like a competition of who can grind the others gear better. So far we've been tied but one of these days her gears are gonna fly off from me just you wait."

_*I wonder how long they've been doing that for*_ Lapis wonders to herself, giving a half smile to her thoughts before pearl coming back with a couple of coveralls.

"Okie dokie here we are, I just gotta have you sign this to show that you received them. Speaking of signing papers, Amethyst did you show her our admin office for her check in paper work yet? She should get those signed fast so the captain can look and give the final approval."

"Yeah P I'm gonna bring her there next. I gotta talk to her about my pay anyways. Can you believe they messed it up again! Ugghh how hard can It be to change something so small.”

"Well you know she has to take care of everyone else on the ship, plus she's a grandma. You can't just expect her to be moving around full of energy." pearl said as she folds the coveralls up in a neat stack. Lapis grabs her coveralls and thanks pearl before heading with amethyst to the admin office. Amethyst asks if Lapis wanted her to carry some for Lapis but she refused.

"Nah it's alright, but thanks. So, who's this graaahhhh!!!" **CRASH!!!**

Lapis slips off the stairs and falls on her back at the bottom of the staircase. Her head and back hitting the last 3 steps. Amethyst see’s Lapis fall and rushes over to her. checking for any injury she might've gotten. "Lapis? Lapis are you okay?! Oh fuck oh shit!"

Lapis doesn’t respond. Amethyst rushes to the nearest phone and call medical to rush over to her location. A few moments after the announcing speaker blasts around the ship where a girl with a deep, scratchy voice calls out.

“Man down, man down, man down reported in admin P-way.”

 Amethyst rushes back to Lapis, lifting her head up to reveal blood dripping from the back of her head. Lapis opens her right eye looking at amethyst, seeing her friend shaken and terrified.

“A-amethyst”  _*I can’t move. Everything is getting all fuzzy. My head feels so warm*_

Was the only thing Lapis could say or think before passing out into Amethyst a


	3. Down Under

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aureolins – Yellow Pearl  
> Azura – Blue Pearl  
> Our little gremlin finally makes her debut!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny story I actually fell like how Lapis did. Luckily i didn't knock out but I did lay there for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Not a fun time hahaha.

“Do you think she’ll be alright?”

Inside the clinic, Amethyst sits beside an unconscious Lapis. A blank room filled with medical posters and a vase filled with various flowers, Lapis lays on a warm bed with a hand knit blanket one of the corpsmen gave her. The blanket had vines running down the side with stars on each corner, in the middle was a rose with peddles running along the blanket. Lapis moving her head every so often gives Amethyst a slight relief knowing she didn’t break her neck during the fall.  Sitting next to amethyst is a large woman with thick curly hair and plump lips with pink lipstick, giving a reassuring smile at amethyst and petting her hair.

“Lapis will be just fine. She’ll be up in no time at all.”

Amethyst gives the large woman a concerning look over to her friend, gently tossing over to her side. “You think so Rose? I just feel like its my fault this happened.” Amethyst looks down to her feet, swinging them back and forth. Rose puts her hand on Amethysts shoulder.

“Let’s go check on her injuries. ”Walking over to Lapis and placing her hand on the back of Lapis head where she got injured, Rose traces the healing scar over her fingers and looks at her hand for any blood coming up with nothing.

"It's healing up quite well. I'm glad you were with her when she fell otherwise it could've been much worse." Rose lifts the back of Lapis shirt to reveal a large slash down the middle of her spine. "She must've got caught on something, this will leave a nasty one for sure, poor girl."

Amethyst walks over and looks on the tear down Lapis back, feeling a sharp ache down her own spine.

"Will she be alright? She won’t be limited to anything with that will she?" Rose inspects further on the tear and stitches, shaking her head with a soft smile. "She'll be fine, just gotta wrap up her back and within a few days that tear will heal up. I'll be right back with the bandage wraps."

Rose exits to a nearby room leaving Amethyst alone to her thoughts. Worrying about her resting friend. After some time Rose comes back with some bandages and gauze and proceeds to wrap Lapis wounds. "Amethyst can you give me a hand with wrapping this wound up?"

Giving the bandage, Amethyst begins to wrap Lapis wounds as Rose holds her up. After patching their Hawaiian friend, Amethyst and Rose lay Lapis back down and cover her with the rose covered blanket. Walking out and into the waiting room Rose signals Amethyst to sit down at a waiting bench nearby. After a few seconds Rose comes back with a cup of orange juice and hands the cup to Amethyst, accepting the juice saying thank you she takes a sip and notices it's not your typical store brand orange juice.

"Wow Rose! This stuffs really good! Did you make it yourself?"

Amethyst finishes her cup within seconds. Rose laughs at Amethyst actions before sipping out of her own cup. "Steven really wanted to make orange juice for you guys. He wants to stop by again soon and see all of you again. "She looks down at her cup of juice showing a soft smile. Amethyst feels a warm smile on her face thinking about the cute boy that no one can resist.

"You should bring him down here for lunch, he could even meet Lapis if she's up in time." Looking over to the room Lapis is in, Amethyst expression goes back to a look of worry. "I'm sure Lapis will love the boy. I'll call Greg and see if we can get him over here."

Rose finishes her juice and calls Greg asking him to bring Steven over. Amethyst looking at the time decides it would be best to start doing her job for the day and come check on Lapis during lunch.

**Below in the engine room**

"Stupid clodding bolt won't come off uugghh. I swear the people before us didn't take care of any of this!"

Engineman Peridot, Young 20-year-old with a fiery passion for mechanics and all things gaming, lays underneath a rusty pipe with a wrench in hand attempting to turn a rusted bolt to no avail.

"Come on Peridot we don't got all day. Yellow Diamond is expecting to get this pipe off by lunch." "Aureolin I'm trying but these damn bolts aren't budging, it'll probably take me all of lunch to get it off."

Engineman second class Aureolin. Some claim her to be Yellow Diamonds “pet” for how close she is with Yellow but Peridot knows the truth. Aureolin fears Yellow for how much power she has on them, and their freedom.

“Do we have to get Jasper again? Last time we asked her to do something like this she said it wasn’t her job and walked away from me!”

Peridot sighs and climbs over the pipe and onto the deck plate meeting eye to eye with Aureolin. Her face covered in oil, Peridot grabs a rag from her back pocket, already covered in oil from wiping her face and piping throughout the day, wipes her face off. Getting most of the oil and dirt off her face.

“Just tell her Peridot needs to get some bolts off and we need her tools. She’ll give them to ya and try not to be a stuck-up bitch to her please. I don’t need another ear full from her.”

Forming a smile from the corner of her mouth she walks away from Aureolin and up the stairs. Aureolins face red with anger stomps off to her office. _*Man just look at her face! Hehehehe. Oh man I’m starving, I wonder what’s for lunch today?*_

Getting up to the mess decks and into the mess line Peridot is greeted by a tall muscular woman with thick white hair tied into a bun.

“Hey runt, I heard you need to borrow my tools again. A tiny bolt kicking your ass yet again ha-ha.”

Jaspers laugh booms across the room. Peridots facial expression shows she’s already tired of Jaspers shit. Jasper immediately apologizes and hands Peridot a tray and silverware as an apology gift. “Sorry about that Peridot, you know I’m just talking shit to ya.”

“I’m not in the mood today Jasp. Aureolin has been on my ass all day to get this pipe off yet she doesn’t raise a finger to try and help me. I’m getting sick of all her shit.” Peridot starts to grind her teeth from the stress and anger built up inside her.

Jasper puts a hand around her shoulder. “Everything is gonna be fine tiny. You gotta take care of yourself and don’t stress on these things. It’ll get done when it’ll get done.”

Peridot lets out a long sigh, looking up at Jasper and nods her head in agreement. “Yeah I guess you’re right. Hey Smokey, what’s for lunch? I’m starving over here!” Smokey pops her head over the grill, giving a wide smile flipping a burger high into the air to show the two engineers what she’s cooking.

“Today’s burger day, don’t you guys remember? We just had taco tuesday yesterday.”

Peridot thinks back onto yesterday, giving a frustrated expression on her face. “I had to skip out on lunch yesterday to work on the engine and Aureolin forgot to pick me up lunch while she was up here.”

Both Smokey and Jasper look at Peridot with concern, then to the far end table at the back of the room sitting Aureolin and Azura. Aureolin giving ship gossip to Azura who just nods and hums in agreement.

“That bitch really needs to know her place. She deserves to have her teeth kicked in.” Smokey turns to Jasper showing a bit of shock from her words. “Jasper you can’t say that! Yeah, she may be mean and a jerk but she’s still a person.”

Smokey puts the freshly grilled burgers on their trays, giving Peridot a double patty feeling bad for what she goes through. Grabbing a seat near Amethyst and Pearl, Peridot and Jasper begin to eat, watching the small girl fight with her friend.

“Come on P you gotta come with me! She’ll be happy you came to see her.” “Amethyst I can’t I have to get back to work right after lunch. And she may not even be up yet, it could be all day until she wakes up.”

Peridot looks at the two in confusion while Jasper speaks above them both. “Who in the hell are you guys talking about, someone get hurt?” Amethyst was the first to speak. Setting her elbow against the table, resting her head on her hand.

“It’s the new girl that came in. She was going down the stairs when she slipped and fell. She hit her head pretty good and sliced her back on one of the screws screwed in on the railing. She knocked out a little after she fell and I called for medical to help her out. She’s at the clinic downstairs. Last time I checked she’s still out pretty good. But she was tossing and turning a little bit more before I left so at least she’s still functioning right?”

Jasper presses her hand against her head and shakes her head. “Those idiots still haven’t replaced that non-skid yet on those stairs? Now we got someone hurt because of those lazy scums.”

Peridot looks at Jasper questioning what set of stairs she was talking about. Snapping her fingers at remembering the staircase next to admin that had torn non-skid. “The one by admin? I almost fell last week by how slippery they are with my boots. Admin really doesn’t do anything around here yet they always get praised by how much they “save time and manage sailors funding.” Those clods don’t even remember where most of our paperwork is! And they always lose things as soon as you hand it to them!”

Peridot finishes her rant and lays her head on the table, tired from ranting on admin. Amethyst rubs Peridots shoulders making Peridot groan with relief.

“You gotta chill out dude. Yeah, they’re pretty bad but its only Fluorite and Azura running the show. Azura is till new and Fluorite is a flipping grandma. Give them some slack homie. Hey why don’t you come hang with me down at the clinic for the rest of the day. You look like you need a break.”

Peridot looks up at amethyst and lays her head back on the table, her voice sounding defeated. “I gotta take this stupid pipe off and replace it today though and I don’t even got the stupid thing off yet!”

Jasper pats Peridot on the back, making Peridot sit back up, looking at Jasper giving out a hardy chuckle. “I’ll take care of the pipe Peridot. You need a break from your work anyway. Stars knows miss lemon head over there isn’t gonna help you”

Pointing at Aureolin, Jasper takes a bite from her burger. Peridot looks to Jasper in amazement. Thinking that someone as menacing like Jasper can actually be nice. “wow….thanks”

Jasper laughs even harder, giving a few people around the room to look at the lion roaring her laugh. “Come on Peri is that all you gotta say to me. You’re lucky I don’t have anything to do today.

Jasper ruffles Peridots hair, flinging it in all different directions. “Hey cut it out! It took me forever to actually keep my hair straight.” Pearl laughs at Peridots small tantrum towards Jasper. “Looks like it’s time for another haircut isn’t it Peridot?”

“Yeah, Yellow Diamond was yelling at me that we all have to meet uniform standards and that my hair was out of regulation and to put it in a bun asap.” Peridot combs back her hair and secures the wild strands with bobby pins putting it back in a neat and straight bun.

"So Amethyst, I guess my schedule's free now. Who is this new girl anyway?"

Peridot raises her eyebrow asking the question. Amethyst takes a drink from her cup of soda, clearing her throat before speaking. "Her names Lapis, Lapis Lazuli, she’s a Damage Controlmen. Apparently, she comes from Hawaii and is only 19 Years old."

Pearl raises her brow and folds her hands together.  "You stalked her Facebook profile didn't you Amethyst?"  "What!? Nooo!.......it was Sardonyx who was stalking. I just so happened to be there."

Amethyst picked up her tray and put it by the sink, refilling her cup and sitting back down. Pearl showing a 'I told you so' look to Amethyst who just brushes it off. Peridot picks up her tray and begins walking towards the sink.

"We should get going then Amethyst. Your new friend could wake up at any time." "Yeah sis, you better start heading there now. Lunch is about to end anyway." Hey P-dot, I'll take care of your workload today so don't bother coming back. Think of it as a thank you gift for helping me pass my exam to make it as a second class."

Peridot looks at Jasper and gives a huge smile before thanking her and taking off with Amethyst. "Haven't seen her smile that much in a few months. They gotta lay off on her or else she's gonna snap."

Pearl gives Jasper a look of confusion. "Didn't know you were one to take care of someone. Especially someone like Peridot." Pearl giggles at the comment she made. Making Jasper fluster and turn away.

"I'm I'm just worried about her that's all. We grew up in the same neighborhood. We never really talked much, I had to keep my model as the cool kid. Looking back I feel pretty bad for her. Her parents weren't kind with her and I didn't help."

Jasper sighs and looks down at the table. Pearl worried about both her friends tries to comfort Jasper when the speaker above them vibrates across the room. "Secure the mess line. Muster all mail Petty Officers on the pier with LS3 (Logistics Specialist) Pearl."

"Ah damnit. I gotta go Jasper. I'll talk yo you later." Pearl hurries off to the pier. Leaving Jasper to go down and carry the rest of Peridots work load. Walking along the hallway, Peridot and Amethyst talk about their daily lives, what video games they're excited for and who exactly this new girl is.

"So how's her injuries before you left? Anything broken?" Making a turn they Approach the front of the clinic. "She's didn't break anything but hit her head and back pretty good. Rose said she'll be fine. She's even bringing Steven too!

Amethyst tip toes down the hallway after hearing a little boy’s laughter in one of the spare resting rooms. The same room that Lapis was staying in. Coming along closer to the door Amethyst peaked her head in to see a young boy by the age of 13 sitting down next to Lapis, laughing about how fish wiggle around to get by. "They just shimmy everywhere they go hahaha." "I think my favorite is how jellyfish swim because they just go bloop" Lapis raises her arms and legs to represent a jellyfish and starts flapping her limbs in and out saying "bloop bloop." with every stroke.

"Amethyst why did you stop by the door? Is something happen...ing" Peridot freezes mid-sentence after catching her eyes on Lapis laughing and snorting at Stevens attempt to be a dolphin.

 _*oh my stars she's beautiful.*_ Peridot’s face turning red she quickly hides back behind the door in a panic _.*Fuck fuck fuck you can't be serious Peridot. You've never even been in a relationship how can you have feelings for someone you literally JUST MET!*_

Noticing Peridots meltdown, Amethyst hides with Peridot. "What's wrong Peri? Why's your face re...... oh my gosh it's because of Lapis isn't it!?"

As fast as her face turned red Peridot covered Amethyst face to shush her. In a low whisper Peridot fluster to explain herself. "It's it's it's not what you think! She's just very beautiful and her laugh is really cute and oh god I'm a mess."

Peridot rests her face on Amethyst shoulder, radiating heat from her embarrassed face. Amethyst ruffles Peridots hair to calm her down. Beginning to laugh at what she's witnessing.

"Peridot I've never seen you like this before hahaha. Maybe you should go see doc and get her opinion on your sickness hhhaaaaaa." Peridot socks Amethyst in the stomach letting out a good amount of air. As soon as the shorty squad was about to brawl, a familiar voice fills the hallway.

"Did I hear someone was getting sick?" Both the girls quickly turn behind them to notice Rose standing over them. Hands on her hips waiting for an answer.

"N-no mam just a small stomach ache. It's gotta be from the burgers today. Just not setting in you know? " Peridot tried lying her way through. Rose and Amethyst look at her with a face that says, 'is that all you can come up with?' But Rose decides to brush past the terrible excuse.

"Well our new sailor just woke up not too long ago. Why don't you say hi and introduce yourself." Peridot froze for a second before giving out a small "o-ok.” While Peridot turns back towards the door and slowly makes her way, Amethyst and Rose both look at each other with the same thought in mind. _*what a clod*_

Peridot steps in front of the doorway, being noticed by Steven immediately. The boy runs full force into Peridot, almost knocking her to the ground.  "Peridot you're here! It's been so long!"

"Yeah it sure has Steven. How have you been?" gathering her breath, she hugs Steven back. Looking straight ahead to Lapis who's giving a heartwarming smile. Giving Peridots cheeks rosy. Steven notices and drags Peridot by the hand to Lapis bed.

"Have you met Lapis yet? She's brand new here but got hurt on her second day. Lapis knows a lot about fish and the ocean!" Steven explaining with stars in his eyes.

the boy does love the beach, doesn't he? Peridot wonders as she looks down at the boy with a warm smile. Looking back at Lapis Peridot takes a deep breath in and exhales. Trying to get her composure together but getting lost in Lapis ocean blue eyes.

"M-my names Peridot." Shaking her head to refocus on what and how she was talking. "I'm an Engineman here. I come from the land down under! so they say." Peridot hears Amethyst laughing down the hall. Letting out a disappointing sigh. Lapis giggles at Peridot, raising her hand above her head.

" Where women glow and men plunder? Hahaha." Bringing her hand under Peridots chin singing the verse. Her heart melts from the gentle touch. Lapis not realizing what she just did retracts her hand to her mouth and starts giggling, letting out a snort. "My names Lapis. Lapis Lazuli hehe." _*What's going on? Why can't I say anything?*_

"Buh uh uh I'm I'm peridot" Hearing Peridots brain shut down, Amethyst decides it's time to come in and save the day. " Hey Lapis, you're awake, I see you met Peridot. She's a riot am I right?"

Nudging Lapis arm a bit. Lapis stops her laughing fit to greet Amethyst with a side hug. "Yeah, I'm feeling better,  just a small headache. So this little guy is Steven huh? He's a very friendly kid. And you are Peridot, right?" Lapis chuckles. "She's an interesting one."

Peridot reboots herself. _*wait wait no no I look like a total fool now.  Get it together Peridot at least try and make a conversation *_ making eye contact with Amethyst her eyes pleading for help. Amethyst getting the call she walks up to peridot and holds her with one arm, thumb pointing towards herself.

“Yeah she is. We’ve been close friends since middle school! My big sister is also with us but I don’t think big navy knows that. She’s technically my half sister legally so when she did her paperwork she used her fathers name instead of moms. But P-dot here knows a lot about Engineering don’t ya?”

Peridot pulls a half-cocked smile, knowing she can sometimes out smart almost everyone on the ship, even the chief engineer. “Well I am the best at what I do Amy. If you have any machinery issues I’m the girl to come to!”

Pumping her fist into her chest, Peridot regained her confidence. Amethyst smiles and pats Peridot on the back. Lapis shows a hearty smile towards Peridot and with that Peridots confidence was gone. “Thanks, I’ll make sure to come to you have I have any problems.”

Peridot rubs the back of her head, feeling the nervousness creep up on her. “Well I mean we can always hang out outside of work too. Me and Amy know this great place out in town that you might enjoy.”

Ending her sentence a tone above a whisper, Peridot reaches into her pocket and pulls out her notepad and writes down a bunch of numbers before ripping the paper of the pad. Giving the paper to Lapis with a shaking voice and body.

“Y-You can have my number and message me whenever you want to. I always keep my phone on me s-so I’m always available if you want to take a walk and explore the city or something.”

Lapis looks down at the piece of paper before taking it and putting it in her pocket. “Thank you, Peridot. I’ll take up your offer. How bout it Amethyst, you wanna come with us?” “Hey I wanna come too!” Steven interrupts the moment causing the three to burst into laughter leaving Steven confused onto why everyone started laughing.

“I don’t know buddy you’re gonna have to ask your mom on that one.” Amethyst says, ruffling the boy’s hair. Rose comes in the room, giving Steven a tight hug, lifting him up into the air.

“Where did my sweet boy want to go?” “Steven wanted to come with us out in town on the weekend. Is it alright if we take him for a few hours?” Rose thinks about it for a bit before setting the boy down. “Well your dad wanted to go downtown to that new restaurant his friend Mr. Fryman just opened up. Hey how about you guys come with us? He should have enough for you guys. Amethyst you can also bring Jasper and Pearl too.”

The trio look at each other looking for any reason not to go but not finding any. “That sounds pretty fun actually, I haven’t seen Greg in a little while too. I think Jasper has duty on Saturday so she won’t be able to go but I can ask Pearl!”

Amethyst said excitedly. Rose smiles at the answer and pulls out her phone to call her husband. “This is gonna be fun right guys?” Amethyst said pumping her fist into the air. “Yeah I’m pretty excited to go out for the first time in Italy!” “I just hope the foods better than your homemade bacon wrapped pizza burrito”

Peridot laughs at the memory of Amethyst attempting to eat the grease covered burrito only to spend hours on the toilet after eating a quarter of her burrito.

“HEY! I didn’t know it would be so greasy it’d tear my stomach a new one!”

Everyone in the room laughs and continues to tell stories of Amethyst homemade disasters until Lapis was clear to go. “Thank you guys for spending the day with me. When I woke up I was afraid I’d be alone. Lapis rubs her thumbs back and forth together looking down at the ground.

“It’s not a problem Lapis, we were worried that you wouldn’t wake up!” Amethyst threw her arms up into the air, opening her door to her berthing. “I’ll talk to you later Peridot, I’m flipping tired and about ready to pass out.” “Wait isn’t Peridot gonna come with us?” Lapis asked with her eyebrow raised at Amethyst.

“Peridot lives in the berthing on the other side of the hallway with Jasper and the Rhodonite twins.”

“Oh okay that makes sense now. I’ll talk to you later then Peridot” Lapis waves over to Peridot who waves back before saying goodnight and walking off. After taking a shower and putting her pajamas on, Peridot lays in her bed listening to music when her phone vibrates showing an unknown number.

“Hey, I really do thank you for spending time with me at the clinic. This is Lapis in case you didn’t know who it was yet :P” Peridot smiles at the message and puts the number into her contact as Lapis Lazuli. “It’s not a problem. I had fun and its always nice to see Steven whenever he visits.”

After a minute another message from Lapis pops up. “Isn’t he just the sweetest! I gotta head to bed now so I don’t over sleep. I don’t know if Amethyst told you but I did that this morning. Goodnight Peridot, I’ll see you tomorrow.” “Goodnight Lapis” Peridot closes her eyes and drifts off into sleep shortly after with a smile on her face from today’s events.

_*I guess things are turning up for me huh?*_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEARS PEOPLE!!! At least over here where I'm at. I hope you guys and gals are enjoying this story and I'll be sure to keep it going!!


	4. Toxic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot wakes up to some unexpected work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah chapter 4 you guys!!! Honestly I wouldn't think I'd make it this far and to have awesome people like you guys reading is amazing!!! Remember to like this story and give me feedback and your opinion guys!

Peridot awakens in the middle of the night to the berthing phone ringing, groaning from that blasted phone, she gets up off her bed and zombie walks to the phone, hitting the wall and the table corner in the process. “God damnit clodding table.” Peridot mumbles to herself. Picking up the phone, Peridot answers with a sleepish “Berthing 3 Engineman Peridot.”

“Hey, Peridot its Jasper. Sorry for the early wakeup call but you’re gonna have to come down here to the pit and help me and Aureolin with this pipe. Yellow wants this shit done tonight before quarters. And I’m for damn sure I’m not gonna do this alone with Aureolin and her lemon mouth.” Growling from the recent information Peridot tells Jasper she’ll be right down and hangs up the phone. She starts getting her coveralls on and walks out the door.

Reaching the bottom stairs she’s greeted by Jasper covered in sweat and oil, socket wrench in hand and a smile that can strike fear off the toughest people. But not Peridot. Mostly due to how tired she is. “Jasp did Yellow really want all this done tonight. This is ridiculous.” Walking over to a hanging pipe being held by chains and rope, inspecting the pipe and where it needed to go.

“Yeah she wants it done tonight so we can move on to the hot water plant, it’s been jerry-rigged to the point where one wrong thing and the whole system shuts down.” Jasper points over to the hot water plant. Peridot sighs and rests her head on the hung pipe. “We really need more people out here. I don’t know how much I can take of this.” As soon as she finishes her sentence, Aureolin walks from out of the office towards Peridot.

“Vacations up Peridork. We need work to get done now. Yellow doesn’t have all day and neither do I, so chop chop got it?” Aureolin gives Peridot a smug look, showing Peridot that she thinks little of her. Peridots blood starts to boil from Aureolins words and smug face. She confronts her. Hand balled up at her sides, gritting her teeth. “Listen here lemon head. Don’t start fucking talking to me like you’re some big shot alright? I’m sick of it. I’m sick of you and every little fucking thing you put me through so why don’t you do everyone on this ship a favor and get lost!”

Peridot, rage in her eyes and a facial expression that shows that she’s ready to tear Aureolins throat makes her stand arms reach away from Aureolin. Jasper and Aureolin were shocked to see Peridot explode all of a sudden. Aureolin, speechless from Peridots actions, takes a step back before speeding out of the engine room in panic. Jasper walks over to Peridot, arms crossed with an amused smirk across her face, waiting for Peridot to catch her breath after her outburst. “So, care to explain what that was all about?”

Peridot turns to Jasper, arms shaking with adrenaline and rage. “I’m fed up with her! She just expects me to do all this work while she just sits in her damn chair and do paperwork. I’m not a slave to do all the hard work. I just, I just want her to start helping me, treat me like a person.” Peridot begins to break down, sliding her back against the workbench until she hits the floor. Her hands still shaking between her knees. Her eyes fixed at the lifeless engine. “It's been so long since I had a day off. So long since I’ve felt an actual sense of joy.” Right after saying that she remembers her time in medical with Amethyst, Steven and her new friend Lapis. Softly talking just enough for her own ears to hear. “At least until I met her.” _*Why am I thinking of her.*_

Jasper leans on the workbench next to Peridot, putting her hand on Peridots shoulder. “I know life's been tough on you. Especially for this long it must be terrible, but you gotta lift your head up and keep on pushing through. Let me talk to yellow about getting more days off. At least start with weekends and go from there. I'm sure I can convince yellow to get our weekends back. But we have to start hauling ass to impress her. But hey that can’t be hard for you. You’ve already been doing it all this time.” Jasper gives a soft punch to Peridots shoulder saying that last part.

Peridot wipes a tear streaming down her cheek and fixes her glasses. Taking a breath in she regains herself enough to stop her hands from shaking. “Let me go with you then. There's no reason for you to fight my battles. We should at least tell Malachite, right? So she can inform yellow that we want to talk.”

Jasper nods her head in agreement. “We should start getting to work before it gets too late.” Walking downstairs, they stop by an open gap between two pipes. Resting on the floor is another pipe about the size of Peridot.

Sitting down at the pipe, Peridot looks inside the open pipe. “Hey Jasp, you think I can fit inside of this thing?” Chuckling as she sticks her head through the hole. “Don't get your head stuck in there Dotty. I don't want another bilge incident.” Jasper laughs at her own comment.

Peridot thinks back on the incident, getting stuck in between the floor and the pipe trying to clean the oil on the floor. The bilge Is another flooring beneath the deck plates that collects oil from pipes and the engines. Peridot remembers trying to get a spot underneath the engine only to get her upper body trapped. She panicked and screamed until Jasper had to guide her out with her feet. Peridot would never again go to that extreme to clean.

“Yeah maybe I should just not do that.” Pushing herself away from the hole. “So what's the plan to get this thing on?”

Peridot inspects the open area where the pipes need to be placed. “Maybe we can squeeze it through these sets of pipes and reel it down. How the hell did you guys manage to get this out anyway?” Peridot looks at Jasper with a puzzled look. Jasper could only give a small chuckle before walking next to the suspending pipe. “A literal bitch and a half right here.” She Taps the pipe with the palm of her hand. “We basically did what you just said but we had to keep going back and forth until we managed to slide it out.”

Peridot took another glance before getting up and holding the chains lifting the pipe. “If that’s the case then let’s get started.” Swinging the chains towards Jasper, Peridot went down to the bilge and attempted to steer the pipe where it needed to go but wasn't strong enough to budge it. So instead Jasper guided the pipe while Peridot raised and lowered it.

“Yo Dotty, why don't you put on some tunes. I'm gonna go crazy if I don't start listening to something.” Peridot shook her head in agreement and started walking over to the workbench where a big speaker sat. Just when she hooks up her phone to it, Aureolin comes back walking towards Peridot. Peridot feels a sharp feeling of regret when she sees Aureolin, her face filled with sadness. She stops a few feet away, taking in deep breaths before speaking.

“Peridot, I I'm sorry for how I acted towards you. It was wrong of me to push you around and make you do all the work.” Peridot couldn't believe what was happening. The girl that slaved her day after day is apologizing to her. Not a fake apology your parents would force you to say but a true sincere apology. Peridot was dumbstruck.

“I didn't give your well-being a thought. Just to get work done. You and I are a team here and I guess I need to start pulling my share as well.”

Aureolin entangles her fingers together, hoping Peridot would forgive her of the slave work and the name calling she's put her through for months. Peridot thinks back on the belittling she's been put through by her. It was so hard to just forgive her after everything she's been put through.

Peridot holds onto the seams of her coveralls to stop her hands from shaking. “Aureolin, I can't just forgive you for what you did to me. I’m sorry but I just can't. You're going to have to prove to me that I can forgive you. If that’s even possible. I’m afraid you’ll just go back to your old ways and just, just go back to making me feel so little and useless.”

Peridots eyes begin to water but no tears stream down her face. She's made her stand and said what she wanted. Aureolin looks down, feeling ashamed and guilty. She takes in another breath and looks towards Peridot.

“I don’t blame you for not forgiving me. Alright Peridot, I can try and prove it to you. Let me help you with whatever you need for the job or even outside of it. I may not be able to do it all but I can try my best.”

Aureolin looks down at the lower part of the work space seeing Jasper and the hanging pipe. “Starting with that right there!” Aureolin points down at the pipe. Jasper listening into the whole dramatic scenario decides that Peridot and Aureolin need some quality team time together and begins climbing up the stairs.

“Well since you both got this, I’m gonna hit my rack for the night. If anyone wonders where I’m at tell them I worked all night and I'll be sleeping till lunch. If they say shit, they’re gonna get a face full of fist.”

Peridot chuckles at Jaspers comment. Jasper starts walking towards the exit giving the two a quick wave. Peridot and Aureolin wave Jasper off and gather around the work bench. Peridot syncs her phone to her speaker and runs through her list of music she's got on her phone.

“Well if we're gonna do this then I gotta have some music.” Peridot looks at Aureolin with a distasteful grudge knowing her next question will either make or break the small line of friendship this duo has. If they have any to begin with. “What genre of music do you listen to?” Thinking that Aureolin being one of the snobby types of people, Peridot assumes her taste in music revolves around modern pop or even trap. She didn't actually  hate that type of music, but actually enjoys the music a bit depending on her mood. Peridot could really care less about it right now though and would rather listen to her nostalgic 2000's playlist currently being hovered by her thumb.

Aureolin places a finger on her chin thinking about the question asked upon her. “I guess I like a lot of pop, both modern and when I was growing up. They were like my idols growing up. Like Lady Gaga or Beyoncé. Oh! Do you have any Britney Spears?” Peridot at first was surprised by her answer of. But after a moment of staring at Aureolin she can totally see Aureolin as a Britney wanna be. She imagines a younger Aureolin with a whole bunch of pop star posters around her room and that made Peridot feel a bit uneasy for her being more into video games and everything geek. Looking at her phone once more she gives a small smirk as she hits her playlist and begins scrolling through her phone.

“You know what I might just got something.” Aureolin raises her eyebrow. “So what is it?” Aureolin ask with her hands on her hips. Peridot gives a bigger smug smirk at Aureolin raising her phone above her head. “It’s Britney bitch.” Tapping her thumb on the song the speaker Peridot is leaning on starts to play a sharp violin signaling what song is playing like a billboard displaying what big hit movie is coming out.

**_“Baby, can't you see_ **

**_I'm calling_ **

**_A guy like you should wear a warning_ **

**_It's dangerous_ **

**_I'm falling”_ **

Peridot and Aureolin couldn't help but laugh at what had just occurred. Aureolin danced around the work bench singing while Peridot laughs and applauds Aureolins performance as a pop star wannabe. For the rest of the night Peridot and Aureolin worked and chatted until they put the pipe back together at around 4 in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I remember my first breakdown. It wasn't fun at all. It's a different feeling when you break down while no one is there like how Peridot has been doing but when someone watches you break down it's totally different. But enough about the sads! A lot of stuff has been coming up with me causing me to work later and later so updates will start to stretch out but fear not! This story is not gonna just stop oh no! I'll be giving out status updates on my tumblr about whats been going on and why I can't post really anything. My tumblr name is shadowblade58 (same as ao3 lol) hope you guys enjoy yourselves witht his and have an awesome one!


	5. I Want It That Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis takes a trip down all the engineering spaces, meeting all the people she'll be with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anything I have to apologize to all of you. I'm so sorry!!!!! These past few months have been hectic and just uuugggghhhhh!!!!! But!!! I am back and I'm not going away! I hope you guys like this chapter because it's a thick boi.

Lapis wakes up to her alarm going off next to her. Groaning to the continuous beeping in her ear Lapis grabs her phone and reads the alarm saying 6:05. Groggy but relieved she woke up early enough to not rush herself for breakfast, she gets out of her bed and stretches. **_*Why do people wake up so early, its inhuman!*_**

Feeling a pop in her arms Lapis lets out a small hum and stretches her back before cracking her entire spine making herself groan. "Ah yeah that’s more like it." Talking to no one in particular.

"Good morning Lapis, sleep well last night?" Pearl said as she ties her boots, already in uniform. Lapis looks back at Pearl and shows a small smile. "Yeah I did. I guess I'm just really glad to meet you guys. I thought I would be... well I don't know kind of cast out by everyone or something."

Pearls face was shocked at the response she got from Lapis. "Lapis you didn't actually think that did you?" Her distressed face made Lapis feel a sudden rush of guilt. **_*Oh shit I shouldn't have said that I’m so stupid!*_** "No no no no!!! Pearl everything's fine!" Lapis hands wave ferociously in front of her. "I was just a little worried because I'm new a-and, and well it doesn't matter anymore. I have you, Amethyst, Peridot and everyone else here." Lapis let her hands fall to her sides, waiting for Pearl to say something.

Pearl walks up to Lapis and lays her hands-on her shoulders, releasing a heavy sigh. "Of course you have us. We're always here for you so don't ever forget that." Lapis eyes dart down hesitating before nodding her head, exhaling through her nose. Her stomach begins to rumble viciously making Lapis hold her stomach tightly.

"Lapis is something wrong?" Pearls face filled with worry. "No no its fine. I'm just starving that’s all. My stomach hurts a lot whenever I don't eat so mornings are never really good for me." Lapis lets go of her stomach when the wave of pain subsides.

"I guess your stomach is eating your backbone then huh?" Pearl gestures hitting her own back with her fist gently.  Lapis raises her eyebrow and tilts her head, very confused on what she just heard from Pearl. "W-whhat??" Chuckling at Pearl who only gives back a smile. "You never heard your stomach eating your backbone before? Where I'm from we say stuff like that all the time." After a moment Lapis stops her chuckling resting a smile on her face. "You can tell me more sayings and where your from on our way to breakfast. I'm withering away as we speak hahaha" Pearl nods her head and walks with Lapis to the mess decks.

Pearl talking about how life was in Louisiana and all these little sayings they say over there. Lapis was in awe by it all. Never even thinking Pearl was from Louisiana. She always thought Pearl was from a state with big city’s like California or New York by her posture and looks. Guess you can't stereotype people by how they look or places seen on TV. Getting their breakfast Lapis and Pearl both wave to Smokey who was on the grill.

Poking on her pancakes, Lapis questions whether or not they were made of rubber and if you can erase pencil markings with them. "Sorry about the pancakes hun. The navy doesn't always give us food that's well, decent." Smokey says as she's making eggs for Pearl and Lapis. "You'd think we would though. Considering we're the front line of defense. I'd like my last meal to be better than some flat rubber tire disguised as food." Lapis smacks her pancakes on her tray. Deciding whether to slap Pearl in the face with it or not, ultimately deciding to wait on another day when they become closer friends to not ruin what she's got going with her.

After getting their eggs, Pearl and Lapis decide on a seat to sit in. A quick glance of the room Lapis sees a very tired Peridot with her head laying on the table. She pokes Pearl asking if Peridot is okay. With Pearl giving a more concerned look starts walking towards Peridot. Lapis following right behind her as they approach the table. “Hey Peridot, everything okay? “Pearl asks, setting her tray down and sitting next to her. Lapis on the other side doing the same. Peridot could only groan before putting her head up sitting with a slight slouch. “I had to work through the night putting in a pipe for Yellow Diamond.” Peridot slumps her head back on the table using her arms as a rest for her head.

Lapis notices Pearl resting her hand on Peridots shoulder giving a small sigh and wonders if she should do the same. She raises her hand hesitating for a moment before gently laying her hand besides her friend’s other shoulder. “Is there anything we can do to help you Peridot?” Peridot hadn’t even notice Lapis walking with Pearl or even sat down right next to her! Her heart pounding in her chest from hearing Lapis’ voice so close to her. “L-Lazuli!” Peridot shoots straight up causing the two beside her to quickly lean back from being surprised. **_*Oh god why did I just jolt up like that? Ugh I’m such a mess. Just kill me now.*_**

“Peridot I’m sorry if I did something wrong, I didn’t mean to.” Lapis holds her wrist, giving an apologetic and surprised look, like a child that’s about to be punished for doing something they didn’t know was wrong. **_*I screwed up. I knew I should’ve kept my distance.*_** Pearl notices the two distressed and quickly tries defusing the situation. “Peridot if you’re that tired then go to medical and try to get a couple hours of sleep. You look like a cast of the walking dead.”

“Did someone say walking dead?” Amethyst comes walking in and hands Peridot a 0-calorie white monster. “Hey Dotty Dot, I got you what you wanted. Sorry again for what happened to you last night. That’s really screwed up you had to stay up all night on some stupid pipe.”

Peridot opens the can, thanking Amethyst for the monster and starts chugging on her beverage. Pearl gives Peridot a disgusted look while Amethyst laughs and cheers her friend on. Lapis just stares at Peridot thinking to herself ** _.*Doesn’t she know how bad that stuff is? How can she just chug that like its nothing? Why can’t I look away though?*_** when Peridot finishes, she heaves out a loud burp getting applause from Amethyst and a deep sigh from Pearl. Peridot notices Lapis staring right at her, feeling embarrassed from belching. “hehe umm excuse me.” Rubbing the back of her neck, staring back into Lapis blue eyes making Peridots face light up a soft pink. **_*Her eyes are so pretty.*_**

Lapis quickly turns her head, trying not to make eye contact. “It’s alright Peridot. Uhm, do you feel any better?” **_*What am I even talking about? Come on Lapis you can make a conversation with them. Just look at her.*_** Lapis lets her eyes fall on Peridot. Her lips that curl up into a soft smile. Her pointed nose holding up her glasses showing off her glistening green eyes making lapis become lost in a brand-new world full of nature lying on a brown fading ring that blends in perfectly. ** _*Just look at her. She’s absolutely perfect. How can anyone do anything to harm her. Wait, is she… is she looking right at me? Shit she is! Oh How long has she noticed me? How long have I been staring?*_**

Peridots face turns a brighter red knowing Lapis has been staring at her for at least a good few seconds. **_*Why is she staring at me like that? Is there something on my face? Did I spill something on my uniform and haven’t noticed?*_** Lapis shakes her head, looking away from Peridot towards Pearl and Amethyst. Peridot checks her uniform and wipes off her face with her sleeve, looking at her hands seeing if any dirt or food came off her face. All the while Pearl and Amethyst were bickering over why you should or shouldn’t encourage your friends for doing something indecent or stupid. Like encouraging your friend to chug an entire energy drink in public like an animal.

As breakfast goes by, the group discuss what the plans would be for the weekend. Peridot and Lapis trying to distract themselves from there internal thoughts by talking about Rose’s invite to dinner on Saturday. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it. I have to organize all the parts that’s coming in and who knows what we’re going to get today!” Pearl pulls her hair back, stressing from the future delivery of various parts and tools coming in.

“Ah come on P, it’ll be awesome to have you with us and besides you can organize that stuff when you’re on duty.” Amethyst puts her hand on her cheek, staring at Pearl with an unamused look. “I guess you’re right. You know what, why not? It’d be nice to hang out with the whole group again plus one with our brand-new member.” Pearl pointing at Lapis, Lapis giving an awkward smile.

From the corner of her eye, Peridot see’s Aureolin walking with Azura. From the looks of it she’s complaining to Azura about staying up so late. She’s looking as tired as Peridot was before drinking her monster. She gets up from her seat and starts walking toward Aureolin, grabbing the attention of everyone else in the group. “Who’s Peridot walking towards? A friend of hers?” Lapis asks, staring at Peridot talking to the girl. “That’s Aureolin.” Pearl hisses her name like it stings her throat. “She’s the one making Peridot work all the time. Somedays I never see her and it’s her fault.” Pearls face looks like she’ll fight her without hesitation.

 ** _*Does she really work Peridot that hard? Why is she even talking to her then? I’d try to avoid her as much as I can if I was her.*_** Lapis getting lost in her thoughts as Peridot finishes talking to Aureolin and waving her off to be back with her friends. “What’d that bitch wanted to talk with you about?” Pearl folding her arms together, keeping her pissed off look. Lapis looks over at the table Aureolin is sitting at. She seems to be complaining to the girl next to her about something. The other girl just listens, nodding her head while eating her egg sandwich. Giving her own opinion whenever the blond stops her ranting.

Lapis wanders her eyes back to her new group of friends with Peridot waving her hands in front of an irritated Pearl rolling her words together trying to get out what she wants to say. “She, she she’s trying to change Pearl! She helped me out last night, staying up and actually helping me put on that pipe.” Lapis scoots her body towards Peridot and gives her a small smirk. “It sounds like she’s not causing her any trouble Pearl. I maybe new here but she doesn’t seem all that bad.” Pearl heaves out a heavy sigh she’s been holding in and surrenders. “Alright, alright I’ll drop it. But if she does anything to you, I’m gonna kick her ass to the next state. I don’t trust her for one damn second.” “Damn P, I didn’t know you were such a boss ass bitch! I kinda like it! Amethyst elbows Pearls arm, impressed at what she just heard. Flustered Pearl grabs her tray and rushes over to drop it off, trying not to show her blushed face.

“Secure the mess line.” Was heard over the intercom and the group go to their respective places for quarters. Pearl and Amethyst go their own way down the hall as Peridot and Lapis make theirs downstairs. Thinking of something to say to Peridot was harder than Lapis thought. They haven’t really been alone together and had help from their friends to keep a conversation going. The silence was making Lapis anxious. Was it because she was around Peridot? Or has she always been like that. Lapis thinks about it walking with Peridot until a thought hit her. **_*Do we ever have quarters together? I should ask her.*_**  “Hey Peridot, do we ever have quarters together since we’re engineering? Or are we always separated because of our rates?” Peridot opens the door letting Lapis go through first to another hallway full of different doors with signs representing different rates on each door. “Well sometimes we have an engineering quarters for our entire department but most of the time we’ll have different quarters. Hmm, you haven’t met with Cheng yet have you? That’ll surely be a problem, especially after your little incident.” Peridot takes a look at Lapis backside as they walk wondering if she’s in pain. Her eyes start to wander all of Lapis, taking a look at her whole body and how attractive she was. Causing Peridot to blush a bright red. **_*Peridot Olivine what are you doing?! This isn’t like you at all! Snap out of it.*_** She walks a little ahead of Lapis, covering her face to not show her blush. Lapis not really thinking to much of it keeps walking down the hall. Thinking how short Peridot is compared to her, making the taller one snicker to herself.

“H-how are you doing anyway? It sounded like you fell pretty hard.” Lapis touches the back of her head, remembering the fall she had and Amethyst beside her. Her face full of fear and panic. She feels terrible for having Amethyst go through that and keeps a note to repay Amethyst later.  “Yeah it was pretty bad. I’m glad Amethyst was there otherwise who knows what could’ve happened.” She touches her back and winces from the sharp pain. Peridot hears Lapis and stops to turn to look at Lapis.  “Lapis is something wrong?” Peridot raises her hands not sure on what to do to help. “It’s, it’s alright Peridot. My back just got a little tore up from the fall. I’ll be alright.” She takes in a breath and steels herself. “I’ll probably go see Rose today if I can get something from the pain.”

Peridot nods but carries a face of concern. **_*If only I could do something to help. Wait a second! *_** “Hold on, give me a quick second.” She rushes back upstairs leaving Lapis confused on where her little friend ran to. After waiting a few of minutes and greeting a couple of the BMs’ passing by to get to their quarters, she even recognizes Ruby and waves toward her, getting a smile and a wave back. Hearing one of the doors open she turns and sees that Peridot came back, heaving as she hands Lapis a bottle of pain killers. “Here *pant* you go *pant* Lapis.” She takes the bottle and chuckles at the tired Peridot catching her breath. “You don’t exercise much do you Peridot?” She pops a couple of pills in her hand and tosses them in her mouth, taking a drink from a nearby water fountain. “I’ve been dead tired since last night alright give me a break.” Peridot crosses her arms waiting for her friend to finish laughing. “Haha well thank you for the pills. I really appreciate it.” She starts giving the bottle back to Peridot. “No, no you keep it. I have more upstairs and you need it more than I do.” She pushes Lapis’ hand back, giving her an awkward smile. “Oh. Thank you, Peridot.” Lapis shows a bright smile making Peridots heart skip. **_*Absolutely beautiful.*_**   “W-Well I  better get going. I’ll talk to you later!” Peridot runs off, out of sight of Lapis. She stares at the bottle given to her and smiles again to herself.

Opening the door to her shop, Lapis is greeted by Topaz sitting in a chair with headphones on reading something on the computer. She walks to their workbench on the other side of the room and leans against it looking around the room at all the small decorations covering the room. Her eyes stop at a frame photo at the center of the wall. The photo shows a group of people together at a park. **_*Looks like some sort of picnic. It must’ve been taken recently. Damn, wish I could’ve been there for it.*_** Topaz notices Lapis looking at the frame giving a small smile remembering the day. “That was taken last month for our picnic. I’m sure you’ve seen a good amount of people here in that photo. Like yours truly hehe.” Topaz raises her hand to her chest, giggling to herself.

Lapis laughs at Topaz’s remark and looks at the people in the photo. Naming off the people she’s seen and remembers their name. Topaz holding a strapped speaker resting her arm on Aquamarines head which seems to have pissed her off by the way she’s glaring right at Topaz. Next to Aqua was a much taller woman with thick, bright blond hair with arms the size of Lapis waist. Her skin looks burned in different parts of her face and body. She’s giving off a fearful smirk, watching Peridot and Aureolin arguing with each other, being held back by two other women. One of them with a loose ponytail and different scars on her arms and face. The other woman wearing dreadlocks and a tattoo of a star on her arm. Almost if not as muscular as the other woman. The person in front has her arms crossed, unimpressed by everything going on around her and seems to care less on what’s happening.

Hearing the door handle turn and the door open, Lapis quickly turns around as well as Topaz getting off her seat. Aquamarine enters the room carrying a stack of folders looking extremely irritated. Taking a seat at the desk where Topaz was just sitting. Topaz moves next to Lapis waiting for a word out of Aqua. A deep sigh fills the quiet room as Aqua stares at the two. “So Lapis, I heard you got yourself into an injury yesterday. How are you feeling?” Lapis tries to act calm and answer without sounding nervous in front of Aqua. But obviously failing as her body tenses up. “I-I’m feeling better now. Just some minor aches but nothing to concerning mam.” “Good, good. I have a lot of things going on right now and I don’t need another problem to deal with.” That last part stung Lapis pretty good feeling an ache in her chest. “Topaz go and help Mrs. Lazuli with the rest of her check in. Show her the rest of the engineering department on this ship and lastly bring her to Cheng, she’s been waiting to see you. I’ll be here working on this damn paper work if you need me.

Lapis and Topaz walk out not wanting to make aquas day even worse. Topaz knows from experience to stay away when she’s upset. “It’s best to stay away from our shop for a little while. We’ll come back after lunch and see if she’s calmed down. I got some friends you should meet and get to know anyway so it’ll be good time to get to know one another.” She gives a smile to Lapis and leads her to a door showing a symbol of a gear being held by some sort of gauge.

“What kind of shop is this?” Lapis ask, staring at the symbol. Topaz opens the door and starts walking inside. “This is the MR (Machinery Repairman) shop. Bismuth is in charge of the shop here.” Looking around the room Lapis notices a bunch of different tools and equipment with bits of metal shavings scattered around. Towards the corner of the room is a desk and workbench with two speakers bolted on the sides blasting punk music.

**“Barefoot in snow**

**You had nowhere else to go**

**And I've been focusing voices in the wind**

**Don't let her in”**

“Bismuth! I got someone you might wanna meet.” Lapis couldn’t see at first from the equipment blocking the chair, but after moving around it she comes face to face with the giant woman named Bismuth. “Well look who we got here, a fresh newbie. What’s your name young buck?” Lapis was surprised by how upbeat her voice sounded. Full of excitement even when confronted by a stranger. “My names Lapis Lazuli. You must be Bismuth I assume.” She extends her hand toward Bismuth. Bismuth smirks and gives lapis a strong side hug causing Lapis to gasp for air.

“Well if you listened to DJ Topaz over there, you’d known you’re right! There’s no need to be so formal Lapis. You need to calm down, you won’t get yelled at for laxing up a little.” She lets go of Lapis and gives Topaz a fist bump before sitting back onto her chair. “Bismuth is our parts maker for the ship. She’s been here longer than most of the other people, even longer than our chief!” Bismuth chuckles at Topaz’s comment and scoots closer to the two. “I know this ship inside and out so if you ever get lost or need to find out where something is, I’m your gal. I’ll be around here most of the time so I’m not hard to find.”

Lapis nods and hums, signaling she understands. “Alright boss we gotta head down to see Jasper next.” Topaz turns and starts walking out the door. Before stepping out the shop she turns her head to Bismuth. “We’ll be back later on Bis. You should show Lapis all the stuff you’ve made sometime. They’re really cool!” Bismuth gives the two a thumbs up, returning to her work on the computer.

Topaz walks down the hall, stopping at a metal door with different pieces of metal wielded onto the frame of the door. Music can be heard playing through the other side. Lapis raises her eyebrow, very confused onto why there’s random pieces of metal on a door when clearly it could be used for something actually important. Topaz knocks and waits for a response but to no avail. “Hey, can’t say I didn’t try.” Topaz shrugs and presses a code on a number pad, hearing a buzz she turns the knob and opens the door.

Upon entering, the whole room is painted black with the exception of red and yellow tool cabinets and a black and white caution lines painted at certain parts of the room. The music source is from multiple speaker systems mounted at the corners of the vast room. Lapis notices a bright light from the corner of her eyes and turns toward it to see a tall, broad woman wielding at a metal workbench. She quickly covers her eyes from the bright arc. “Damnit.” Lapis hisses feeling her eyes begin to strain. **_*Shit, I should’ve known what it was.”_**  She wipes her eyes and turns away from the arc. Topaz already next to the broad woman, with her eyes covered taps on the girls shoulder practically yelling at her to stop. Trying to get her voice to pierce the music playing.

**”I can feel you all around me**

**Thickening the air I'm breathing**

**Holding on to what I'm feeling**

**Savoring this heart that's healing”**

The massive woman turns off her wielder and lowers the music off her phone. “Thank you, Jasper. I like music just as much as the next person but that’s a little to loud don’t you think.” Lifting up her wielding helmet and hanging it on a hanger nailed to the wall, Jasper shows her face, revealing blotched skin of different tones and brown eyes that glow of fiery embers. She slides a chair towards her and takes a seat, hand resting against her cheek.

“What do you want Topaz? I’m kind of busy working right now. Making something for one of Peridots tools.” Hearing Peridots name made Lapis jerk her head toward the two. Topaz hasn’t noticed Lapis sudden movement. Jasper on the other hand has seen it from the corner of her eye causing a small smirk to form on her face. “So you must be our man down the other day.” Lapis didn’t know what to say and started to fumble on her words. “I uh, uh I didn’t mean to.” Jasper raises her hand in front of her. “I’m just messing with ya kid, don’t take it to literal. I heard Amethyst was with you when it happened. It’s a good thing my little sis was there to save the day.” Lapis eyes raise. “Wait you and Amethyst are sisters!? I thought siblings weren’t allowed to be in the same command.” Jasper pulls up another chair for Lapis and gestures her to sit down.

“Of course Amethyst didn’t tell you. She and I are half-sisters. Same father but different mothers.” She closes her eyes and sighs. “Look, I’m not going to tell you about my life story, you can talk with Amethyst about that. Let’s learn something about you. Why’d you join the Navy?”  Lapis sit quiet for a few seconds, thinking of how she wants to answer. “I joined because I wanted to see more of the world. I lived in Hawaii all my life and haven’t gotten the opportunity to actually go out and see what the world has to offer.”

Jasper crosses her legs and grunts, interested in her answer. “I heard Hawaii is a nice place to relax. Hopefully I’ll go there for my next command.” Jasper looks back at the project she’s working on and gets up from her seat. “You guys need to get out now. I got work to finish and you two aren’t helping. Don’t want to sound like an asshole but I have stuff to do. Unless you got work for me or food to eat, I don’t want you over here.” Her voice not as laid back as it was.

Lapis gets up and walks out with Topaz out the door. With a loud **SLAM** , the door closes on them. Topaz motions Lapis to start walking down the hall and downstairs. “What the hell was her problem? We didn’t even do anything!” Waving her arms up in the air, Lapis quickly follows Topaz lower down the ship. “She’s probably just stressed with this inspection. Cheng made her in charge of all the fixes we need and it looks like it’s taking a toll on her. But she’ll make it through. We all will.” Lapis thinks about what Topaz just said. **_*We’ll all make it through? It sounds like we’re all going to war.*_**

Topaz checks her watch for the time. “Hey, it’s about time for lunch though, we should head up to the mess decks. I’m starving for some food.” They both make their way up and wait in line to grab their meal. Lapis and Topaz split their ways, Topaz sitting with Jasper and Bismuth and Lapis with Amethyst.

“ Hey dude, how goes with work?” Amethyst asks with a bite full of chicken in her mouth. “It’s pretty good actually. I spent the day meeting the different people in engineering. Why didn’t you tell me you had a sister on the ship? And Jasper of all people?” Amethyst nearly chokes on her food and lunges forward shushing Lapis. “You can’t be saying stuff like that out loud. Barely anyone knows about that. Who told you?” Lapis shifts her eyes towards Jaspers table seeing her look at their table from the sudden noise, shrugs and continues to eat listening to Bismuth talk about a sweet bar she recently found. Lapis looks back at Amethyst and raises her eyebrow. “Umm your sister?” Amethyst puts her hand over Lapis mouth. “I told you to keep quiet. Ugh, I guess she doesn’t care about us being together like I do.” She slouches back in her seat and takes another bite of her food. Face upset and disappointed. Lapis couldn’t help but to feel bad. She’s the only family she’s got around here.

“Hey, I’m sure she’s just telling me because we’re friends.” Amethyst stares up at Lapis before playing with her food again. “yeah, maybe.” Lapis couldn’t help but feel defeated to cheer up her friend so she sits and eats with her in silence until a little while later when Pearl sits down with Peridot behind her. Suddenly the once two upset members were feeling joyful again after the rest of their party joined them.

“Hey guys! Ugh you cannot believe the morning I had.” Pearl said sitting down and begins eating her lunch. “We still doing dinner with Rose and her family this weekend?” Amethyst asked looking at the rest of the group. “Well Aureolin says there’s a good chance for me to actually have a weekend off for once if we’re able to replace some stuff before the end of the day.” Something about her friend being able to have the weekend off makes Lapis feel giddy. “That’s awesome! Is dinner going to be good? What style of restaurant is it? I haven’t left the ship yet and I don’t really know what’s around.” Lapis plays around with her food wondering what’s out there off the ship. “Hey Lapis, if I get off early enough maybe we can walk around the town. I can show you some spots I like going too. Only if you want.” Peridot nervously asks as she looks down at her remaining food. “Ha like you have spots to hang around at Peri. You never have time to hang out or even leave the ship!” Amethyst waves her arms up in the air. “Hey I go out! Don’t make fun of me for not being able to enjoy myself!” Peridot shouted annoyed at her friend for teasing her. Lapis couldn't help but smile and watch as her friends teased with one another.

 

After lunch the group split to their respective shops leaving Lapis to walk with Topaz to their shop. Making small talk on how today's lunch was mediocre at best and how they should get snacks later. Entering their shop greeted Aqua, her face looking disgusted at the computer in front of her. "You're telling me I need to have special permission to write this report in? Fucking bullocks that’s what this is!" Lapis very confused by her vocabulary stares at Topaz for an answer only to get a blank stare in return.

 

"Hey Aqua, Lapis and I are still going through the engineering spaces. It should only be the main spaces left then we'd be done. Do you want anything from the vending machines? " Aqua flicks her eyes towards the two before staring at the computer again. "We just had lunch. You know what forget it just give me a bag of chips and a drink I don't care what it is. Just hurry it up. I got something for you to do afterwards you two." Topaz nodded and headed out the door with Lapis in pursuit.

 

Coming up to the vending machines Topaz wonders what she'd want to get." Hey Lapis what do you want to get? It’s on me." Lapis eyes furrowed looking at the different choices and ended up asking for Doritos. After getting all the food and drinks they wanted, they headed back to Aqua and handed her what she wanted with Aqua giving a thank you before going back to her work.

 

Thinking about it, they haven't stopped by Peridots shop which made our Hawaiian a little excited to see her little engineer. Full of sudden energy Lapis hurried out the door ahead of Topaz, waving her to hurry up. Going downstairs Lapis remembers Topaz words from this morning. **_*we'll make it through. We all will. *_** Making her worry.

“Hey Topaz. Do you remember what you said this morning? What do you mean by We’ll make it through? Is this inspection like super hard or something? It’s kind of gotten me worried a bit.” Topaz sighs and rubs the back of her neck. “This inspection takes a lot out of us. Some more than others. Countless hours of work and cleaning to the point where our brains just turn to mush!” She rubs her temples and looks back at Lapis. “Don’t worry though. As long as we all stick together, we’ll make it through.” Lapis gives a small smile at that last sentence. But in the back of her head she dreads on what will come these next couple of weeks.

Coming down a flight of stairs, the two approach a door with a sign that says Main Machinery Room. “Is this where the engine is?” Lapis asks as she reads the warning signs on the door. Must wear hearing protection when entering space. “Yep, this is where we run our engines and a bunch of other stuff.” Topaz hands Lapis some hearing pro and walks through the door. After going down yet another flight of stairs both Lapis and Topaz begin to hear music coming from the big space. **_*This place is huge! It’s like the size of all the shops upstairs combined into one.*_** Lapis spins around looking at all the equipment and tools around the area. Wandering around until they found where the music was coming from.

**_“You are my fire the one desire. Believe when I say I want it that way. But we are two worlds apart. Can't reach to your heart. When you say. That I want it that way”_ **

Seeing two engineers taking pieces off different equipment, singing along to the song playing. Noticing her small friend singing brings a smile on Lapis face. **_*She’s pretty cute when she’s having fun. *_** Sneaking up behind her and Aureolin surprising them both by singing along with them. “ ** _Tell me why. Ain't nothing but a heartache. Tell me why. Ain't nothing but a mistake. Tell me why, I never want to hear you say. I want it that way”_**

Leaving Peridot dumbstruck with her mouth open, Lapis comes next to Peridot and smiles right at her. Leaving her little blond friend happy, confused  and very flustered. “L-Lapis! What are you doing here?” Trying to keep herself stable hanging onto a piece of piping with a wrench in her hand. “Just came to see a grand tour of the ship, and you” She points straight at her. “happened to be next on the list.” Peridot  feelings ruffled up and lost her cool. **_S-She really came to see me?*_** After a moment of very awkward silence, Aureolin cleared her through gathering the attention of everyone around.

“Look, we have a lot of work to do so if you’re not here to help us then get out.” Lapis taken aback by the sudden comment by Aureolin. Before she had a chance to talk back Topaz came in and put a hand on her shoulder telling her it was time to head out. Watching Lapis turn around and head back upstairs with a disappointing look on her face. Peridot couldn’t help but feel sad as well. “You know you didn’t have to be so rude about it.” Aureolin looks at Peridot, annoyance written on her face. “We don’t have time for silly games Peridot. Now get back to it. I want to be done as soon as soon as possible and get out of these dirty coveralls and take a freaking shower.” Peridot just sighs and continues with her work, turning her music up to try and drown out her negative thoughts.

Up above, Lapis and Topaz start walking back to their shop. On the way Topaz tries to calm Lapis down from being interrupted by Aureolin. Coming back to the shop they see Aqua at their computer still doing paperwork from this morning. “Hey Aqua, we finished with the tour of our engineering spaces and Lapis met with everyone in our department. Is she allowed to see Cheng yet or is she busy?” Aqua shoots a short glance at the two before picking up the phone and dialing a pattern of numbers. “Hey Cheng, it’s Aqua. Are you busy right  now? No it’s not about that. I’m still finishing up all the paperwork for that job. It’s about our new sailor Mrs. Lazuli. Do you have time to talk to her for a bit? In your office in 5? Okay will do, thank you.” She hangs up the phone and scoots back from her desk. “Alright Lapis, you’re going to be meeting up with Cheng in about 5 minutes in front of her office. Topaz go with her so she doesn’t get lost and after you two are done come back to me. We’re going to have to organize these files when I’m through with them.”

Topaz nods and starts walking out the door with Lapis in hot pursuit. “Hey Topaz, I didn’t ask before but what does Cheng stand for?” “Oh it stands for Chief Engineer. Whoever holds that title is in charge of the entire engineering department. She’s one of the most important people on this ship.” Lapis gulped out of fear. **_*Someone that important is pretty terrifying to face.*_** Lapis’ breathing starts becoming heavy as they head closer to Cheng’s office. By the time they get to the front door her legs are shaking heavily. “Lapis what’s wrong? You nervous?” She stares at Topaz for a second and shakes her head violently. “I just get a little nervous around higher ups. I’d rather just not do this.” She starts walking away until the office door opens and a voice that hints of annoyance. “Mrs. Lazuli, do come in. And close the door behind you.”

 ** _*Shit.*_**  “Y-yes mam.” Lapis walks into the room and look at Topaz one last before closing the door. “Mrs. Lazuli I’ve heard you’ve gotten into an accident yesterday. Shame for it happening on your second day here. You’re doing better now though correct?” She stares at Lapis with cold, dead eyes. “I’m doing better mam. Just some cuts and bruises.” **_*Just calm down Lapis, try to find something else to look at. Don’t stare at her*_** Her eyes searching for an object to focus on, stopping at a plaque on the desk ready Yellow Diamond, Chief Engineer. That didn’t exactly calm her down so she sways her attention to a picture next to the plaque. The picture shows a much younger Yellow Diamond with her mother and father next ton her. It looks like she just graduated candidate school and the happiest she could be.

 “That’s good.” Yellow turns her attention back to her computer. Giving Lapis a bunch of relief not having eyes on her. “Why did you join the Navy? It looks like your family was well off. Owning an industry for Hawaiian Macadamias.” Lapis froze in place shock clearly shown on her face. **_*H-how could she have known? I haven’t told anyone anything about my life. Something isn’t right. Not at all*_** “So Mrs. Lazuli, why did you run away from a simple wealthy lifestyle?” She locked her fingers together and places her chin on top of them. Giving Lapis another cold stare. “I-It’s-I wanted to see the world.” “Tsk, the world isn’t anything but sin. Well Mrs. Lazuli we’ll keep in touch. You can go back to your shop now.” She sets her focus back on the computer and starts typing away on the keyboard.

Lapis just stood there, unable to move. Fear holding her legs and grabbing her by the throat. It was getting harder to breath and she was beginning to sweat. “Didn’t you hear? Get out, now.” Yellows voice was stern and angry. Her legs finally broke free and Lapis practically sprinted out the door, closing a lot more violently then she meant. Topaz waiting patiently for her. “How did it go?” Lapis face was flushed and pale. “Let’s just go back to our shop please.” “Already walking ahead of Topaz as she finished her sentence. Topaz, concerned for her friend decides to stay close to her for the rest of the way back. Coming back to the shop, Aqua still on the computer typing away. “Ah you’re both back, good. I need you two to put all these folders in the cabinet and organize them. That’s all I need from you two for the day. Please be safe this weekend. The last thing I need is a phone call saying someone got in trouble out in town.” Lapis started grabbing the folders and begin sorting them. Topaz walks next to Lapis with a pile of folders in her hand. “Do you have anyone to show you in town this weekend? **_*That’s right. I’m having dinner with Rose and her family, and my new friends, and Peridot!*_** Lapis gives a small smile to Topaz. “I do actually. I’m having dinner with a couple of my new friends.” Topaz feeling reassured seeing Lapis smile. They continue organizing folders until there is none left and Aqua dismisses them for the evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These upcoming chapters won;t have a set schedule because of how hectic everything's been but I'm not gonna give up on this!


	6. Fly Me to the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot finally gets some free time off work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back at it again with the updates! Been super busy with work so sorry about that ^^; I've been thinking of doing a couple different series but I already got two I'm working on! I don't know what to do about it. Oh well. Anyway here's a good chapter for you all!

After work, Lapis goes up to her berthing and grabs her stuff to take a shower. Finishing her shower, she comes back to her berthing to see Pearl sitting in one of the chairs on her phone.

 "Hey pearl. What are you doing still dressed for work?" Pearl looks up from her phone to Lapis and gives out a small irritating sigh. "I got duty today. At least I'll be off Saturday for our dinner date though so that's good." Duty, Lapis remembers having to stand duty when she went to school. You're not allowed to leave the ship for the whole day. "Dang that sucks, what about the other two?" **_*I wonder when I'll start having duty. Hopefully not soon. *_**

"Amethyst is probably out partying somewhere in the city getting shit faced. That woman I swear she can't just have a relaxing weekend." Sounds a little too much for Lapis taste. She's still only 19 and hasn’t had the best experience with alcohol. "What about Peridot? You think she's off work yet?"

Pearl taps her chin with her phone a few times, giving out a small hum. "I'm not sure honestly. Tell you what, I'll go down there and see if she’s off, since you can't go down there without coveralls." Lapis face lit up a bit. Excited for what's to come.

"Thanks Pearl. I'll be waiting outside on the boat deck." Pearl nods and walks out of the room leaving Lapis to herself. Grabbing some of her belongings like her phone, wallet, and a pair of headphones, she takes off downstairs to the boat deck.

After stepping outside, she stands right outside the guardrails at the edge of the ship looking beyond. Just tall enough to see a good amount of the city that overlays. Turning around she sees the vast ocean, staring out at the sunset ahead, Lapis leans against the railing, lost in her thoughts.

 ** _*My first sunset here. It reminds me of home. I miss my family. Jeez I'm already getting homesick and it hasn't even been a week. *_** After staring at the orange tinted ocean for a bit she hears heavy boots stepping, no, running towards her. She turns to see Peridot, face covered in dirty oil and her hair a wild mess. Giving Lapis a bit of a chuckle.

"Lapis! *huff* Pearl told me you were *huff* here and wanted to see me." pearl being the messenger bird has kept her word it seems. "I wanted to know if you were off work yet and maybe you can show me around town tonight. If that's okay with you." Peridot smiled wide, nearly ear to ear as she nodded. "Of course! I mean, yes, I'd like that. I just got off work so let me shower really quick!" She takes off running up the stairs leaving Lapis giggling to herself from her friends’ actions. **_*She's such a dork. I love it. *_**

About 30 minutes later Peridot comes back freshly clean. Wearing a pair of brown cargo pants and a green hoodie, her signature look. "Ready to go?" She says while adjusting her glasses. "Mhm." They walked off the ship, waving goodbye to Pearl and Bismuth who were standing watch. “Looks like tiny is finally getting off the ship for once. And with that new DC girl.”  Pearl nods and looks at the two getting off the ship. **_*I’m glad she’s getting some relaxing time. *_**

Walking off to the pier Lapis wonders what her little friend has in store for her, as the sunset fades beneath the sea and the sky transforms into a starry night.

Walking off base the duo head straight into town full of street vendors, children, young teens and adults. "Hey Lapis, you don't mind if we eat first do ya? I haven't gotten the chance to eat dinner yet heh. I know this great restaurant that'll serve almost anything you want!" Lapis felt bad for already eating and not feeling hungry but she didn't want her to starve. "You know what I'm actually feeling pretty hungry too. I'm following your lead Peri." Adding a smile and a head pat, causing Peridot to grow red from being touched by Lapis.  "L-let’s get going then!" She starts speed walking deeper into town with Lapis right behind her.

An alley way full of neon lights saying open or welcome light up the path as Peridot and Lapis walk into a family owned restaurant called Sunnys. Inside, there was a bar table that stretches all the way down the room with a round table at the end with small 2 person tables on the other side next to a flight of stairs. It felt homie, like when you were a little kid and went to your friend’s house and their parents greet you with smiles and delicious food. Lapis felt at peace here, forcing a warm smile to her face.

"This place is owned by a husband and wife. This is actually the living room and beyond the bar table is the kitchen!" Peridot and Lapis sit at the bar table next to each other, both their eyes gaze at the monument wall of different glasses from all over the world. "Wow, that's really cool. It's like a neighbor inviting you into their home and sharing a meal with them." "Mhm, it's one of my favorite spots. They're really nice people."

"Peridot?" A hefty voice coming from upstairs asked. "Yes, it's me Vi." "You know we close early on Fridays. Haha oh well. I'll be down in a minute." After a moment, they hear footsteps coming down the stairs as a burly, middle aged man with short hair colored in shades of black and white and a thick gray curly mustache stands at the end of the stairs.

"Peridot you never told me you brought a guest along either!" The man walks over to the two. "My name is Hugo Vavinci, your cook and owner of this restaurant. You can just call me Vi." He extends his arm out to Lapis with a welcoming smile. Lapis connects and shakes hands." my names Lapis Lazuli, it's a pleasure to meet you Vi."

A short pause before a loud gurgle interrupts as Lapis and Hugo both look at Peridot. "Haha I can see you didn't come to just say hello." Peridot shows an embarrassed smile, holding her stomach in pain. "I'm sorry Vi, I didn't get the chance to eat dinner and I wanted to show Lapis my favorite place to eat and." Vi waves his hand out and shakes his head. "There's no need to be sorry Peridot, you're basically family and is always welcome here. But you should've at least messaged me first so I can get things running. Shoot even Roo is still out in town getting food for tomorrow." Peridot let's out a soft sorry before another gurgle by her stomach has her kneeling over.

" Alright I get it. What would you like Peridot? The usual or maybe something more fitting like steak?" **_*Something more fitting? *_** Lapis asks herself, watching the man chuckle at Peridots red Face. "That's not what I'm trying to do! Ugh just give me the usual." Vi nods and faces Lapis. "And what about you Lapis?" She reads over the menu of different foods from all cultures, giving out soft hmms. **_*All these foods look decent but, maybe I should go with ol reliable until I settle in.*_** "May I have a Hawaiian bacon burger with no tomato please? " "Sure. Not a problem."

Giving Vi their menu, they chat about the restaurant and how much they enjoy the atmosphere while Vi prepares their meal. "Thank you for the compliments. It was my wife who made the design and wanted it small. I wanted a big restaurant that would gather the eyes of everyone. But that dreams been long gone and I don't mind that. I love this place and wouldn't change a thing about it."

Bringing the two their food, Vi takes a seat behind the counter in front of them. "Funny, I remember when you first came here Peridot. It was a slow rainy day. Barely any customers, and you came running in, hair as damp as a used mop haha. Roo was worried sick when you came in looking like that and decided to let you use our shower and borrow her clothes. I said it wasn't our problem and we should just leave you alone but she decided to look after you. She cares about everyone. That's just how Roo is.” He pauses, reminiscing that moment until he snaps back to reality.  “And after that day she started coming in almost daily just to say hi and chat with us haha! "

"Hugo!" Both Lapis and Vi were laughing at his story while Peridot hides her face in her arms from embarrassment. "I think it's a pretty cool story. It's like having a family close to you and you can visit whenever you like." Lapis smiled after saying that. ** _*A family you can always go to. *_** Lapis gets stuck on that thought. Will she have a family she can come to? Can they be her family too?

"Well it's getting kinda late. Almost half past 8. I should clean up before Roo gets back. Don't want her fussing over how dirty the place is.” Lapis and Peridot nod their heads and hand their plates to Vi." Tell Roo I said hi for me Vi. I'll see you next time!" Peridot exits the restaurant, holding the door for Lapis. "It's a pleasure to meet you Vi. I hope I can see your wife next time I come." Vi looks back at Lapis and smiles. "I'm sure she'll love to meet you Lapis. I'll tell her you said hi too." Lapis smiles and waves Vi off, walking outside with Peridot next to her.

"Where shall we go next? It's getting kinda late and... " Lapis looks around the plaza full of people. Many shop vendors asking people to buy their products, street performers entertaining various crowds, and Solo musical artists letting their music be heard. All of it amazes Lapis to no end as she watches the energy bouncing from wall to wall. Her eyes stop at Peridots face, smiling at Lapis. Her face lights up a rosy red as she tries looking away from her and back to the crowds of people. "D-do you think we still have time? I kinda wanted to walk around and look at all the cool things going around." Peridot hums a light hearted tune as she nods her head.

The two spent the rest of the night walking around the plaza, looking at all the small shops and people until Peridot felt the sudden urge to use the bathroom. "Umm Lapis. I gotta use the bathroom really quick. Wait here please, I'll be right back!" Peridot rushes off to the nearest bathroom, leaving Lapis sitting by a large fountain sculpture, waiting for her friend to return

Passing the time though she listens to the various songs people are playing until one particular song starts playing, grabbing her attention. She searches for the source, finding a middle-aged man with long hair sitting against a wall plucking away at his acoustic guitar. Lapis hums to the beat before taking in a breath and starts to sing to the song.

**"Fly me to the moon**

**Let me play among the stars**

**Let me see what spring is like on**

**A-Jupiter and Mars"**

Peridot, coming out of the bathroom and was about to call Lapis over until she heard Lapis' voice and stops in her tracks.

**"In other words, hold my hand**

**In other words, baby, kiss me"**

**_*Her voice is like 1000 angels singing. *_ **

**“Fill my heart with song and let me sing for ever more**

**You are all I long for**

**All I worship and adore"**

Lapis looking down at her hands still singing with a soft smile on her face.

**"In other words, please be true**

**In other words, I love you"**

Lapis cheeks turn rosy as she closes her eyes for a moment and open them again. Thinking of the person her heart feels for. Peridot on the other hand nearly explodes as she rushes back to the bathroom and splashes water on her face to cool herself. **_*Oh my God she's absolutely amazing. Damn it, cool yourself Peridot! Your face is brighter than a bad summer sunburn. *_**

Lapis hums the tune again softly to herself thinking nothing but who she's waiting for. **_*I'd be embarrassed if she saw me sing a song like that hehe. Good thing she's in the bathroom otherwise I'd think I'd just die of embarrassment. *_** Chuckling to herself from the thought.

Peridot comes out of the bathroom again, her face soaking wet, only having a light shade of red to her face. "Hey Peridot! You okay? Your face is soaked. The water is dripping all over your jacket!" Peridot uses her sleeve to wipe the remaining water away and attempts to slick back her damp hair only to make it spike every which way. "I'm alright. We should start heading back to the ship before curfew." Lapis nods and they walk back the way they came until they got back to base and to the ship.

"Thank you for spending the day with me Peridot. I had a lot of fun." she smiles at Peridot making her smile back scratching the back of her neck. "I had fun too. It's been awhile since I've been out and I enjoyed it. And we also have tomorrow with the rest of our group too which will make it even more fun!" Peridot pumps her fist up in the air causing Lapis to laugh and snort. "What?" Peridot asked confused on what she did wrong. "*snorts* hehehe it's nothing.” Lapis stops her giggling fit. “You really are something." She whispers to herself looking at Peridot. Her smile and her glare make her seem like she's lost in something. A certain someone’s emerald eyes.

They say their Goodnight and go to their berthing’s. Lapis is greeted by a tired Pearl getting ready for bed. "So, how'd it go with you two? You had any fun?" Lapis couldn't contain a smile and sat down talking about her events that happened. Careful to leave out her inner feelings about Peridot.

Peridot was greeted by Jasper doing pushups in the middle of the berthing." Hey there pip squeak. Heard you went out with your new friend. You get some?" Jasper joked and gave a hardy laugh. Peridot grew irritated at her and gave a short groan. "We just hung out around the plaza! I didn't

'get some' jeez." Obviously annoyed Peridot went straight to her bed ready to knock out for the night. Jasper got up and walked next to her. "I'm just happy to see you smiling again P." Peridot wasn't expecting that and stared at Jasper for a moment. "It has been a while since I had fun huh?" They both talked for a bit about what happened today.

Saying their Goodnights Peridot turns her alarms off except for one late alarm, just in case her body fails to wake her naturally. **_*She makes me really happy just being around her. I can't stop thinking about her. Oh no. I think I got a case of lovesickness and it doesn't have a cure. *_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah this series is pretty much a musical. Woops hehe. The Navy revolves around music really. It's what keeps us going at work so that's why I made it into a kinda musical type of thing. I think it's pretty cool and I try to make the title make sense to the chapter. Next chapter should be a goody so stayed tuned!

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment or like the story so that I know people actually enjoy this please. Your input means a lot to me


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